


Listening In

by Extraordinaire



Series: Adventures of Illidan and Leo [2]
Category: World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Legion - Fandom
Genre: F/M, not canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:47:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24499663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Extraordinaire/pseuds/Extraordinaire
Relationships: Female Worgen/Illidan Stormrage, Illidan Stormrage/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Adventures of Illidan and Leo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770016
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Listening In

"Where did you get your soul?"

Leo searched Illidan, eyes larger than normal under arched brows. "I... assume it was assigned at birth?" 

Illidan narrowed his burning gaze at the wolf in human skin. He could not tell if she jested, spoke genuine, or tried to thwart around the bush. "Mortals don't come back to life like you do. I mean the _immortal_ soul."

Leo hesitated, turning her face away. Her eyes darted in thought, and the air between them shifted in uncertainty. Illidan tore a wide strip of dried meat and tossed it in her lap to appease the silence. 

He preferred fresh, juicy meat to field jerky. But even there on Mac'aree where neither the Void or Legion touched, it was not wise to linger at meat over a fire. At least there atop a sacred building surrounded by ancient protective magic, they had a moment. And Illidan did not want to waste it. The question had burned inside of him since she brought him back.

 _"Who_ did you _kill_ when you got the soul?" he clarified. 

Leo took a deep breath as if returning to the moment. "I didn't." She turned her head and found his gaze. She looked like she expected a reprimanding. "I died." A short pause while her eyes drifted again. "I think. In the Twisting Nether past Outland." 

Illidan’s brow furrowed in attempt to read through her aura. She seemed serious enough. "So how did you return from death with a soul you were not born with?"

"I don't know." She shook her head and looked away again. "I was fighting ethereals. This was after… the Black Temple. I pursued them to the broken land floating out from the continent in Netherstorm. I got carried away." Her head shook again. "I was only focused on the hunt. I think he knew that, the one I was chasing."

Illidan remembered Netherstorm and the Twisting Nether all too well. The Void corrupted much of Netherstorm, hence the name. Ethereals enslaved the weak and tore Void portals into the land. Few survived outside preservation domes. The constant ebb and flow of the Void into Netherstorm destroyed its ozone. It remained open to the Twisting Nether, as far as Illidan knew. 

Normally separated from planets by thick atmosphere, the Twisting Nether was that endless space between worlds. All who survived it had a unique experience. Illidan recalled his own time there: a vast, dark realm with countless twinkling stars and distant planets. Quiet and beautiful, but a lonely place. He now wondered how Leo saw it.

"He laid a trap I couldn't smell," she continued. "Everything smells the same out there. And… it was hard to breathe. That particular ethereal caused great damage before fleeing. A friend died, it's why I chased him in the first place. But his trap caught me." Leo paused to frown again. “I was flung out into the Twisting Nether, bleeding the whole way. It was cold and I couldn’t breathe… and I think I died.”

“Obviously that did not happen.”

Leo nodded, then shook her head. “No. Maybe?” She winced in thought. “Out of nowhere I felt _hot,_ and I could _breathe_ again. There was no one with me, but someone laughed and said I worry too much. Before I had time to look around, I went crashing back down to Netherstorm. The goblins there said I was on fire when they found me, but I was back up and fighting an hour later.”

“A demon, ” Illidan concluded. But which one? 

Small shoulders shrugged. “Maybe.” She met his eyes. In her hand below lay the jerky he had tossed over moments ago. “Is anything else immortal? Elves are, right?”

“Only with the Well of Eternity.” Illidan resisted the urge to show off the arcane energies that coursed through his fel-laden veins. _“Dragons._ But their souls do not linger in the Twisting Nether. They rest in the Emerald Dream.” He studied her for a moment. “What did it look like to you?”

Leo looked over in question. “What?”

“The Twisting Nether. Everyone sees something different. What did _you_ see?”

Leo’s eyes darted in thought like always. “At first, darkness. But as I spun further out, there were massive clouds. Like the colors here, but no plants. _Clouds_ and _clouds_ of color, and twinkling stars. _Shooting_ stars.” Leo sounded longing. “Almost like looking into the Void, but _more.”_

Illidan sighed on purpose. “It is not the _Legion_ Azeroth needs to worry about, but _you,”_ he teased with a straight face. Amusing because the Void intrigued him as well as her.

Leo laughed. “What?” The smile lit her up like a full moon in winter. 

“As soon as we turn our backs, there _you_ will be, _welcoming_ in the Void.” 

She failed to suppress a laugh. “Oh, I’ve already done that, remember? I came back to _life_ in the Void, then it _spit_ me back out.” 

Illidan snorted. “I don’t blame it. You are not particularly appetizing.”

Leo’s turn to snort. “The cabin in my Garrison said otherwise.” 

Illidan could not stop that grin for the life of him. He had tasted her many times that night, and he regretted nothing. "The Void does not know what it is missing.”

“I suddenly regret dropping eaves,” Romuul said in their ears. 

Leo scoffed and ripped the device from her ear. Illidan laughed at the mortification on her face. It was always one thing to tease each other, but now their jokes were private. But it did not stop Illidan’s amusement. Leo threw her device as far as she could as if it was contagious, and Illidan laughed again.

“They will certainly talk now.” 

  
  
  



End file.
